The musings of a bearded earthling

Peak Oil Round-up

Just a sampling of the many recent peak oil articles floating around.

The Sacramento News and Review sketches out what a city such as Sacramento might look like in our peak oil future. One of the better articles on Peak Oil that I’ve seen in a while in that it provokes contemplation of what we might expect: Sacramento on empty

The world is approaching the ‘peak’ of global oil production. Will communities like ours be able to stave off a dramatic shift in our way of life, or are we destined for a painful era of change?

Sacramento 2036: It’s a rare thing to see a car of any kind on J Street, and then it’s most likely to be an armored police vehicle. From time to time, a small convoy of these–three or four–will emerge, usually to protect against civil unrest at one of the food-distribution points. They used to be called “supermarkets,” but they didn’t look like armored warehouses then. They are fairly safe these days. Most people who don’t have money to buy food have signed on to work at a farm in exchange for food or have been court-ordered into indentured labor to pay off their debts.

But take your pick from terms like “serious concern” and “major issue” and you will not be far from the positions which analysts are increasingly adopting.

The reason for their concern can be found in a set of factors which are pulling in glaringly different directions:

Demand for energy, in all its forms, is risingSupplies of key fuels – notably oil and gas – show signs of declineMainstream climate science suggests that reducing greenhouse gas emissions within two decades would be a prudent thing to do.Meanwhile the Earth’s population continues to rise, with the majority of its six billion people hankering after a richer lifestyle – which means a greater consumption of energy.

Underlying the growing concern is the relentless pursuit of economic growth, which historically has been tied to energy consumption as closely as a horse is tethered to its cart.

It is a vehicle which cannot continue to speed up indefinitely; it must at some point hit a barrier, of finite supply, unfeasibly high prices or abrupt climate change.